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WEST HOBOKEN

2070

WESTMINISTER

West Ho'boken, N. J., a flourishing town in Hudson County, N. J., on the Hudson River, adjacent to New York City. It is largely engaged in the manufacture of silk-goods. It has schools, churches and civic buildings, a convent of the Sisters of St. Dominic, a Roman Catholic school and a monastery of the Passionist Fathers. The population has more than doubled in the past decade, its inhabitants now numbering 35.403.

West In'dies, an archipelago of about i ,000 islands lying between North and South America. The island of Guanahani was the first land seen by Columbus, and he gave the name of West Indies to the region, thinking he had found a new route to India. The islands separate the Atlantic Ocean from the Gulf of Mexico, and are in four groups: the Bahamas; the Greater Antilles, including Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica and Porto Rico; the Lesser Antilles; and the islands off the coast of Venezuela. The Bahamas are low islands of coral, while the other Antilles are mountainous and volcanic, having peaks from 6,000 to 8,000 feet high. The summers are very hot, and hurricanes are numerous and severe. Insects, snakes, lizards and scorpions abound, and the birds are especially beautiful. The forests produce mahogany, satinwood, crabwood, rosewood and other valuable lumber. Ginger, pepper, pimento, aloes, sassafras, cochineal and indigo are other products. The chief trade is in sugar and tobacco. The mineral wealth is not great, though gold, silver, iron, copper, tin, lead, salt and other minerals are found and worked to some degree. The Spaniards began their dominion over the islands by enslaving the native tribes they found there, who at times revolted against their masters, but with no effect, and were almost exterminated. As a result of the Spanish-American war in 1898 Porto Rico was ceded to the United States and Cuba was freed from Spanish sovereignty. Guadaloupe, St. Bartholomew and Martinique belong to France; the Bahamas, Jamaica, the Leeward and the Windward Islands and Trinidad to England; some of the smaller islands to the Dutch; some to the Danes; while Haiti is independent. Population (total estimated of the whole of the West Indies) 5,678,128.

Wes'tinghouse', George, American engineer and inventor of the air-brake, was born at Central Bridge in Schoharie County, N. Y., on Oct. 6, 1846, and spent his early youth as apprentice in his father's machine-shops at Schenectady, where he was also educated in the public schools of the town. In the Civil War he served for two or three years with the i2th New York Regiment and the New York Cavalry Corps, and later became assistant-engineer in the United States navy. Returning to Schenectady in 7.865, he resumed his education at Union

College, meanwhile pursuing his bent towards mechanical investigation. The result was his invention of the locomotive airbrake, which came into instant use in this country and, later, in Europe. For this and for his other useful mechanical devices and patents he received honors abroad. He also devoted himself to electrical research and made such discoveries or developments of discoveries as to make possible the long-distance transmission of power. Connecting himself with a large manufacturing plant at Pittsburgh, Pa., he

fave practical effect on a large scale to is inventions and mechanical appliances, turning out steam and gas engines, steam turbines etc., and also supplying the generators for use in the large power-plants at Niagara Falls and those in use by the rapid transit and elevator systems of New York and elsewhere.

Westminster Abbey is in the city of Westminster, which now is a part of London. On an island formed by a branch of the Thames, Sebert, king of the East Saxons, built a church in the 7th century, which was replaced, it is thought, by an abbey called Westminster, to distinguish it from St. Paul's or Eastminster. The first building of stone on the site was built by Edward the Confessor, of which the pyx-house is a remnant. The present abbey was mostly built by Henry III, beginning in 1220 with a chapel. The western front with its great window was the work of Richard III and Henry VII, who also built the chapel called by his name. Two towers were added by Sir Christopher Wren. The building is a cross, 511 feet long. It was used as the burying-place of the English kings, and is crowded with monuments. The shrine of Edward the Confessor was built by Henry III; the tombs of Edward I, Henry III, Henry V, Edward III and of most of the sovereigns from Henry VII to George III are within the walls. There are, besides, the two coronation-chairs, one inclosing the stone brought by Edward I from Scone, on which the Scottish kings were crowned. The most interesting part of the abbey is the Poets' Corner in +"He eastern aisle of the southern transept, wheie are memorials of the great British poets, Chaucer, Dryden, Milton, Gray, Shakespeare, Addison, Thomson, Tennyson and the American poet, Longfellow. The monuments of Pitt, Fox, Chatham, Canning and Wilberforce and of the great inventors, Talford, Watt and Stephenson are in other parts of the building. Consult Walcott s Memorials of Westminster.

Westminister, Can. One of the richest agricultural districts of British Columbia is New Westminister, which includes all the fertile valley of the lower Fraser. The climate is mild, with much rain in winter. The timber is heavy, the underbrush thick.